And in a recent Inverse poll of over 1,200 readers, it was also the most popular Netflix sci-fi movie by a wide margin. Almost 26 million people watched it in its first week, according to Netflix.

Released on Netflix over the 2018 winter holidays with Sandra Bullock in the lead role and a cast that included John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, Lil Rel Howery, and the rapper Machine Gun Kelly, Bird Box was a monster hit. As a result, the survivors are forced to wear blindfolds or cover their eyes whenever they go outside, which makes finding sanctuary particularly difficult. Looking at the monster causes anyone to go insane and either ally with it or kill themselves. 'Sometimes it’s weird, all this secrecy, but I'm game.'įor the uninitiated, Bird Box takes place in a post-apocalypse caused by a creature we never see. 'I can't say much, but I can say that it is in development,' Malerman says. He adds that a sequel movie is already in the works, though for now, the details surrounding it are as secret as the unseen monsters that haunt his story. 'Then it jumps a few years later, and it really takes off 10 years after that.' “I can say that it is in development.” - Josh Malerman on a sequel to the movie Bird Box ' Malorie opens at the school for the blind, which is where the movie ends,' Malerman says. Titled Malorie after the character Sandra Bullock brought to life on Netflix screens around the world, the new novel picks up where the original book/movie left off, meaning fans of the film should be able to jump right into the sequel novel. The long-awaited sequel to Bird Box (the book, not the movie) is coming out on July 21. There was a point to this interview, of course. Even his closet is full of scary masks.įrom top left, clockwise: 'Creepshow' heads, 'The Shining' vinyl, a 'Bird Box' action figure, coffin bookcase, and me looking at Malerman's closet full of masks. He's also got a coffin-shaped bookcase made by his brother and packed full of old paperbacks, and a pair of replica zombie heads from the movie Creepshow. 'Look at this dude, this is the original,' he tells me, holding up a copy of The Shining soundtrack, part of a collection of horror movie vinyl covering one wall of his cozy home office. An aging hipster who went from living with his friends in Williamsburg in the early 2000s and touring as a rock band (he wrote the Shameless theme song at a house party in Georgia while on tour) to publishing the story that inspired Netflix's most popular movie of all time, Malerman comes across as a genuinely nice dude who also happens to be obsessed with horror.

In a horror story like the one that made him a famous writer, this might be a huge red flag, but I'm safe on the other side of a Zoom call and Malerman is about as far from a scary movie villain as you could imagine. The interview is over, but Bird Box author Josh Malerman really wants to show me something spooky in his house.

Malorie malerman